Our estuary should not be destroyed for developers’ profits

WHO would have thought that North Devon Council would try to rush through, under the cover of Covid – one of the most controversial, environmentally damaging planning applications which will decimate our wildlife for all time?

I must admit, even I did not think them capable of such behaviour. The Yelland Quay Site (PA 60823) is a major local and national issue and will have disastrous implications for our communities during the 15 years it will take to build and for all future generations.

This registered asbestos site still has 700+ tons of asbestos buried on site on the very edge of our estuary.

This asbestos, which has impacted so tragically on the lives of former workers, is to be covered in concrete right up to the banks of our estuary.

This will make a mockery of all the lectures we receive from North Devon Council about climate change; rising sea levels; CO2; protecting wildlife etc.

They will be denying the natural world the space it needs for wildlife to survive.

There will be more noise/people/ traffic/pollution/speeding cyclists on our already overburdened Tarka Trail and more litter everywhere, including on Instow Beach.

They will be destroying the one thing that our estuary is famous for – our wildlife.

Everyone agrees that humans need tranquillity and green spaces for our mental and physical wellbeing.

If North Devon Council pass this appalling scheme they will never be forgiven.

Our memories will certainly last until May 6th.

Many have tried, unsuccessfully, to gain information from the planning department. They need to understand that we live in a democratic society and we are fully entitled to be treated with respect.

I would remind everyone that this scheme to build a 280-housing estate/hotel on the banks of our Taw/Torridge Estuary – known as the ‘jewel in North Devon’s crown’, has attracted the largest objections to any planning scheme.

North Devon Council has received some 1,000 letters of objection to this application and not one letter of support – not one!

In the first weeks of this scheme being online it attracted over 6,000 signatories until an officer informed us that this would only count as one single vote – so we took it down.

Every large environmental group, such as the CPRE, RSPB, AONB, DWT, UNESCO Biospere, TTEF, BTO, Gai Trust, etc, etc, and local parish councils and resident associations, are all fiercely opposed to the ruination of our estuary, simply to make eye watering profits for local developers.

It is an absolute disgrace, with such universal opposition to this scheme that North Devon Council has thought fit to notify no one until today (April 15th) of the site visit on April 21st (which we have now discovered is only a ‘virtual’ visit online) and the planning application will come before the council on the April 28th – again, a ‘Zoom’ meeting or something else North Devon Council has invented – to keep the public away!

In these day of restrictions on free speech; corruption in high places – it is of the utmost importance that we have a free press to hold our councils and councillors to account.

Seven days’ notice takes secrecy to a whole new level!

Is North Devon Council guilty of disrespecting the wishes of the people of North Devon and its many visitors who have objected to this hideous scheme?